Whole thing started with Pulwama in Kashmir
in Indian Kashmir where a suicide bomber attacked an Indian army convoy and
killed 40 soldiers.

The incident has happened in the wake of upcoming
general election in India which also coincides with Modi’s plummeting popularity
that have made some people looking at this sad incident beyond the obvious.

There is nothing more potent or attractive
than surging feelings of bellicose nationalism, a proven mobiliser for
politicians and Modi is fully aware of this. Sad as it is, Modi’s post Pulwama rabble-rousing
without proper investigation of the incident, has raised few eye-brows.

Jaish e Mohammed (JeM), a Pakistan based
terrorist group (to Kashmiris, they are Mujahedeen) has claimed the
responsibility and Modi quickly capitalised on the claim and blamed Pakistan
for complicity. Imran Khan promptly rejected the claim and asked for
‘’actionable evidence’’ and invited Modi for dialogue. Modi showed no interest.

Several Indian experts including a former Indian
General who served in Kashmir also doubted government’s claim that the suicide
bombing was planned and executed by Pakistan, arguing that the huge of amount
explosives that were used in the suicide bombing that would have been
impossible to smuggle from across the border, ought to have been procured from
inside and therefore, further proper investigation is needed to reveal the
source/s of the attack. Regardless, whatever is the source and whoever is
responsible, one thing is clear that Pulwama incident is also a case of massive
security failure that the Indian army and the government in general must
account for but curiously, they remained ambivalent.

Instead, Modi chose to capitalize on the
tragedy and whip up nationalism with a war cry, some argue, to rescue his
plummeting popularity on the eve of the April election. Instead of further
investigation and ignoring Imran Khan’s appeal for dialogue Modi responded with
air attacks inside Pakistan in Balakot, hoping reprisal and the chain
repercussions of bellicose nationalism and a resurgent popular Modi and BJP,
his party. To beef up his cause Modi claimed destruction of JeM training centre
and killing of 300 JeM “terrorists” inside Pakistan though reports from
international media that took few days to investigate, revealed that the
bombing destroyed few trees and bruised few rocks in the mountain and the only
human casualty is a peasant, injured by splinters.

Balakot was followed with several Indian
Air Force (IAF) sorties inside the Line of Control, in Pakistan held Kashmir
that resulted in Pakistan military downing two Indian fighter planes and
arresting Wing commander Avinandan who parachuted and fell in Pakistan
territory.

Imran Khan, the Pakistani Prime Minister
came on the TV and appealed for dialogue and peace and in a rare gesture of
good will, announced release of the captured Indian Wing Commander without any
conditions. The Wing Commander by now is back in India and with his family.

So, what do we make of all these?

Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of
Bengal (former, West Bengal) believes that starting with Pulwama entire episode
is nothing but a charade to reap electoral benefit and berated Modi saying, “We
don’t want politics over the blood of jawans”.

Arundhuti Roy has, however, viewed these
latest incidents on and around Kashmir more holistically, and argued that almost
all Indian governments since 1947 have addressed the Kashmir’ demands of
self-rule with disdain and violence and not with empathy which has brought the two
nuclear armed nations to war not once but on several occasions in the past and
this is dangerous. She argues that while most Indian governments lacked
sincerity in addressing the complains of the Kashmiris, things got much worse
since 1990s – “more than seventy thousand people have been killed in the
conflict, thousands have “disappeared”, tens of thousands have been tortured
and hundreds of young people maimed and blinded by pellet guns. The death toll
over the last twelve months has been the highest since 2009.” Thus Kashmiris
are angry and desperate and to them those who challenge the Indian state are
neither “terrorists” nor “militants” but ‘’mujahids’’ (freedom fighters) and thus
it is little wonder that “….when they are killed, hundreds of thousands of
people—whether they agree with their methods or not—turn out for their
funerals, to mourn for them and bid them farewell.”

From Pulwama and the ensuing India/Pakistan
spat, several important lessons emerge: (i) firstly, Modi’s war cry for
political dividends seems to have fallen flat on its face which has also revealed
that him and BJP are capable of doing whatever it takes to rouse people for
their narrow political ends, at India’s cost; (ii) secondly, their failure to
do so in the face of a scrutinizing Indian populace also proves that in
politics wishful thinking is a bad thinking and that it leads to little wish
fulfilment and more importantly, it also speaks of the strength of India’s
democracy where scrutinizing publics exercise their democratic rights and their
ask government to account; (iii) thirdly, Imran Khan’s persistence with peace
dialogues and more importantly, his good will gesture of releasing of Wing
Commander Avinandan in the face of Modi’s relentless invitations to violence
has shown the strength of political maturity over reckless jingoism; (iv) fourthly,
to India’s peril and to the joy of the Kashmiris, Modi’s short-sighted and
politically motivated attacks inside Pakistan that almost brought the two
nuclear-armed nations to the brink of war and thanks to Imran Khan’s mature
handling of the situation that averted the conflict to gout of control so far, has
ended up internationalising once more the Kashmir issue, as an unsolved
dangerous hotspot of the world, requiring immediate attention; and (v) finally
and this is something that Robert Fisk has eluded to in one of his recent insightful
articles in the Independent that Modi’s heightened belligerence against the
Kashmiris is part of a broader agenda and not without the backing if not active
encouragement as well as participation of a foreign ally, Israel. Fisk argues
that “For months, Israel has been assiduously lining itself up alongside
India’s nationalist BJP government in an unspoken — and politically dangerous —
“anti-Islamist” coalition, an unofficial, unacknowledged alliance” and as part
of this cosy relationship India under Modi has also emerged as Israel’s largest
weapons buyer. Therefore, it is not by accident that the Israeli-made Rafael
Spice-2000 “smart bombs” were used by the Indian air force in its strike
against Balakot.

Israeli alliances do have a history of dragging
their foreign friends into unwanted illegitimate wars – Indians better be aware
of this.

Another less talked about and least appreciated
milestone of the conflict that relates to Imran Khan’s mature and sensible
handling of the situation and his government’s decision to release and return
captured IAF Officer Wing Commander Avinandan unconditionally. Indeed, this may
for the first time since Jinnah, that it is the elected politicians and not the
Generals who are not known for making mature and sensible judgements, are
making decisions in Pakistan and this is good news for Pakistan and Pakistan’s democracy,
while the opposite may be happening in India.

Several years ago, when Tariq Ali, the
Pakistani British social activist interviewed Indira Gandhi and lamented that Pakistan’s
self-inflicted debacle is because, “the Generals make decisions.” In response
Mrs. Gandhi told Mr. Ali that during the 1971 war when Pakistan lost East
Pakistan and it was also doing badly in the Western wing, the then Indian Army
Chief, General Manekshaw walked up to her office and said, “Madam Prime
Minister, if you wish we can take over Pakistan [meaning the then West
Pakistan] in 24 hours.” Mrs. Gandhi asked the General to give her 24 hours and
consulted the Cabinet in -between and they said, “No”. Indira Gandhi then told
Tariq Ali, “You see when it comes to Generals, ours are no less reckless than
yours but the only difference between India and Pakistan is that in our
country, generals do not decide”.

Looks like the scenario has reversed since though
in India’s case it may not be the Generals controlling decisions as such but BJP’s
war mongering blood thirsty Siv Sena and more pronouncedly, India’s highly
politicised Intelligence Agency, RAW may be calling the shots, literally, these
days! Therefore, the worst may not be over yet.